NEW ZEALAND
Manawatu Standard
RICHARD SWAINSON
February 25 2016
The Catholic church is an easy target.
A socially conservative agenda stands in broad opposition to mainstream thought in liberal western democracies.
The church’s stance on homosexuality, contraception, abortion, transgender issues, the ordination of women and euthanasia is no longer that of the majority.
Its history is full of examples of failing to live up to the high standards of Christian behavior. You cannot easily sweep the Crusades, the Borgias or the Spanish Inquisition under the carpet.
In the 20th century questions about how the church rose to the challenge of fascism can be posed.
It was on the side of Franco in Spain and there are at the very least conflicting views about its relationship with a Nazi regime where a good portion of senior leadership claimed nominal Catholicism.
Then there is the issue of historic sexual abuse by its clergy and the systematic practice of covering these obscene crimes up and even perpetuating them by shifting offenders from one parish to another.
That the institution put the needs of its reputation above that of innocent children is now an acknowledged fact. If the church refuses to engage in a conversation about the effects of enforced celibacy on priests or the predilection of those who put themselves forward for the priesthood to offend it can no longer deny that grave and indefensible errors were made.
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